taloged  SEXUAL  CRIMES  AMONG  THE 
SOUTHERN  NEGROES. 


BY 


HUNTER  McGUIRE,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 


AND 


G.  FRANK  LYDSTON.  M.  D. 


I 


PUBLISHED  BY 

RENZ  &  HENRY, 
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SEND  PO»  TRIBUTES  TO  ITS  WORTH. 


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/ 


PampKlet  C  ollection 
S>uke  University  UbraTy 


SEXUAL  CRIMES  AMONG  THE 
SOUTHERN  NEGROES. 


BY 


HUNTER  McGUIRE,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 


AND 


G.  FRANK  LYDSTON,  M.  D 


PUBLISHED  BY 

RENZ  &  HENRY, 

LOUISVILLE,  KY. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/sexualcrimesamonOOmcgu 


SEXUAL  CRIMES 

AMONG  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGROES,  SCIEN- 
TIFICALLY CONSIDERED. 


AX   OPEN   CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN 

HUXTER  IMcGUIRE,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  OF  RICHMOND,  VA. 

President  American  Medical  Association  ;  Ex-President  Southern 
Surgical  and  Gynaecological  Association,  Etc., 

G.  FRANK  LYDSTOX,  M,  D.,  OF  CHICAGO,  ILL., 

Professor  of  Geaito-Urinary  Surgery  and  S}-pliilolog3-  Chicago  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons ;  Surgeon  to  Cook  County  Hospital  ;  Fellow 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Soc:al  and  Political  Science,  E:c. 


RiCHMOXD,  A'a.,  I\Iarcli  ii,  1893. 

Dear  Dr.  Lydston, — After  reading  your  article* 
on  Sexual  Perversion,'''  I  am  induced  to  ask  you  to 
give  me,  if  it  is  possible,  some  scientific  explanation 
of  the  sexual  perversion  in  the  negro  of  the  present 
da}^ 

*  "Essays  and  Addresses,"  published  by  Renz  «fe  Henry,  Louisville,  Ky. 


2 

Before  the  late  war  oetween  the  States,  a  rape  by 
a  negro  of  a  white  women  was  ahnost  unknown;  now 
the  newspapers  tell  us  how  common  it  is.  The  crime 
of  a  negro  assaulting  a  white  woman  or  female  child 
seems  to  be  growing  in  frequency.  Death — certain, 
swift,  and  merciless — is  the  penalty.  This  is  the  un- 
written law  of  every  community  in  the  South  ;  from 
it  there  is  no  appeal.  It  is  immutable,  and  is  sus- 
tained by  every  living  white  in  the  community  in 
which  the  crime  occurs.  I  am  not  engaged  here  in 
defending  this  law,  although  it  is  easy  to  do  it.  I  am 
trying  only  to  give  you  some  facts  on  which  to  base 
your  opinion,  in  a  purely  scientific  discussion. 

It  is  not  the  legal,  social,  moral  or  political  aspect 
of  this  perverted  sexuality  in  the  negro  upon  which  I 
ask  your  opinion.  The  subject  has  been  discussed  in 
these  ways,  and  without  any  good.  I  want  you,  if 
you  will,  to  investigate  it  as  a  scientific  physician — 
one  who  has  devoted  much  time  to  this  and  kindred 
matters.  I  do  not  know,  in  all  this  land,  one  so 
capable  as  yourself  of  making  the  examination  com- 
plete, and  I  sincerely  hope  the  investigation  may 
result  in  some  benefit  to  the  negro  race.  ' 

In  the  South,  the  negro  is  deteriorating  morally 
and  physically;  and,  as  the  American  Indian,  the 
native  Australian,  the  native  Sandwich  Islander,  and 
other  inferior  races,  disappear  before  the  Caucasian, 
so  the  negro,  in  time,  will  disappear  from  this  conti- 
nent. It  is  only  a  question  of  time.  All  history, 
from  the  days  of  early  Rome,  shows  that  no  inferior 
race,  without  amalgamation,  can  exist  for  very  many 
years  in  contact  with  the  dominant  white  man  ;  it  is 
the  frightful  "survival  of  the  fittest." 

The  ingenious  Census  Bureau  tells  another  story, 
you  may  say.     Well,  the  ingenious  Census  Bureau 


3 

has,  for  many  years,  been  telling  many  stories,  and 
this  is,  just  now,  as  far  as  it  is  worth  while  to  discuss 
this  point. 

During  the  days  of  slaverj^.  insanity  was  ver^^ 
uncommon  among  the  negro  race.  Now,  our  large 
asylums  are  not  capacious  enough  to  hold  the  insane 
negroes  of  both  sexes. 

Before  the  War,  the  negroes  were  fed  upon  the 
food  which  of  all  others  conduced  co  their  health; 
'•hog  and  hominy"  was  the  main  ration,  and,  with 
this,  an  abundance  of  bread,  milk  and  vegetables. 
Now,  their  thriftlessness  makes  them  sometimes  suffer 
for  a  sufficienc}'  of  food,  and  that  obtained  is  not 
always  of  a  suitable  kind.  ]\Iany  of  the  most  im- 
provident have  scarcely  enough  clothes  to  hide  their 
bodies,  and  when  able  to  buy,  they  generally  select 
flashy  and  thin  flims\"  garments  that  poorh*  protect 
them  from  v\-et  and  cold.  Their  clothes  are  very 
different  now  from  the  thick,  warm  homespun  they 
formerly  wore.  We  have  also  intemperance,  excess, 
and  impure  air  from  overcrowding  and  want  of  venti- 
lation, adding  their  share  to  the  trouble.  Mental 
depression  and  anxiet}'  are  also  common.  Laughter 
and  music,  universal  with  them  before  the  War,  are 
now  rarely  heard.  There  are  many  and  ven,'  notable 
exceptions  to  the  above,  of  course,  but  I  am  de- 
scribing the  negro  masses. 

In  this  State,  during  the  period  of  slavery, 
scrofula, "  as  the  word  was  then  understood,  was  a 
frequent  affection  among  the  negroes.  It  was  shown 
by  the  swollen  glands,  by  the  tumid  belly,  by  certain 
ophthalmias,  and  cutaneous  eruptions.  The  negro 
was  called  ''scrofulous,"  and  considered  disfigured, 
rather  than  disabled.  Pulmonary  phthisis  and  other 
purely  tubercular  diseases,  while  common  enough  in 


4 

the  mulatto,  were  comparatively  infrequent  in  the 
negro.  Now,  however,  scrofula  in  the  negro  seems 
to  have  terminated  in  what  has  been  called  its  ''essen- 
tial element,"  and  tuberculosis  is  fearfully  common. 
(I  use  the  words  in  the  senses  in  Vv^hich  they  were 
then  employed.)  It  is  difficult  to  find  in  a  dissecting- 
room  a  negro  subject  free  from  tubercular  deposit. 
Another  disease  that  I  will  only  mention-— syphilis — 
is  frightfully  common. 

I  cannot  speak  of  the  negroes  who  have  moved  to 
the  North  and  West.  I  have  no  means  of  definitely 
knowing  their  condition. 

If,  in  treating  this  subject,  some  other  besides  a 
scientific  view  is  necessary  for  its  complete  considera- 
tion, don't  hesitate  to  use  it. 

The  newspaper  men  in  the  North — by  no  means 
all,  I  am  glad  to  say,  but  in  many  instances — in 
reporting  some  of  the  crimes  of  which  I  am  writing, 
seem  to  see  only  the  fearful  spectacle  of  a  hung, 
burnt  or  shot  negro.  They  seem  unable  to  see  the 
innocent,  mutilated,  and  ruined  female  victim  and  her 
people;  but  this  is  another  kind  of  perversion  of  mind 
and  heart  that  neither  you,  I  know,  nor  I  care  to 
discuss. 

Sincerely  your  friend, 

Hunter  McGuire. 


Chicago,  March  i6,  1893. 

My  Dear  Doctor  McGuire,  — - 1  consider  myself 
highly  honored  by  your  letter  relative  to  the  sexual 
peculiarities  of  the  negro.  Your  eminent  position  in 
the  profession  and  your  wide  range  of  information 
make  3^our  request  for  my  opinion  peculiarly  flatter- 


mg.  I  fear,  however,  that  I  am  not  capable  of  doing 
the  subject  justice,  as  the  question  at  issue  is  one  of 
vital  importance,  and  also  one  which  I  have  seriously 
considered ;  I  will,  nevertheless,  answer  you  to  the 
best  of  my  abilit}^ 

You  will  pardon  me,  I  am  sure,  for  touchmg  upon 
certain  phases  and  relations  of  the  matter  which  3^ou 
have  expressly  intimated  should  be  left  out  of  our 
correspondence.  I  believe  in  taking  the  bull  by 
the  horns,"  and  do  not  consider  it  justifiable  to  leave 
any  salient  points  untouched.  I  know  the  liberality 
of  my  Southern  friends — of  whom  I  believe  no  Nor- 
thern doctor  has  more  than  m3'self — and  I  feel  certain 
that  they  will  take  all  that  I  may  sa}^  exactl}^  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  written.  Believe  me  also  when  I 
state  that  any  bias  which  may  appear  to  be  in  favor  of 
what  has  been  termed  the  Southern  method"  of 
dealing  with  the  criminality  of  the  negro,  is  by  no 
means  due  to  a  desire  to  pat  my  Southern  friends 
upon  the  back,  but  is  based  upon  absolutely  indepen- 
dent reflection.  I  know  that  this  statement  to  5^ou, 
who  know  me  so  well,  is  unnecessary  ;  but  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  this  is  an  open  letter,  and  liable  to 
misinterpretation — wilful  or  otherwise.  So  much  for 
my  platform. 

The  term  ''sexual  perversion,"  as  applied  to  the 
class  of  crimes  committed  by  the  negro  to  which  3'ou 
allude,  cannot,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term,  be 
justified  scientifically.  Sexual  perversion,  in  the  ab- 
stract, implies  an  aberration  of  the  sexual  passion 
which  impels  to  abnormal  methods  of  gratification 
with  the  opposite  sex  or  methods  (necessarily  abnor- 
mal) with  the  same  sex.  The  only  qualification  in 
the  case  of  ordinary  rape  is  that  involving  criminal 
assault  upon  children.     Here,   strange  to  say,  we 


often  find  a  class  of  cases  where  the  criminal  has  no 
desire  for  female  adults,  but  for  female  children  only. 
I,  of  course,  cannot  exactly  say  hov/  frequent  such 
cases  are  among  negroes,  but  I  firmly  believe  them  to 
be  relatively  more  frequent  among  the  white  race,  in 
whom  it  may  be  either  inherent  or  acquired.  Rape, 
however,  under  the  stimulus  of  this  abnormal  passion, 
is  not  so  liable  to  be  perpetrated  by  the  white  man 
for  the  reason  that  certain  inhibitory  influences,  such 
as  pride,  fear  of  punishment  and  ordinary  self-control, 
are  more  effective  in  the  white  than  in  the  black  race. 
Relative  to  this  form  of  sexual  perversion,  I  will  call 
your  attention  to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  exposures  in 
London  some  years  ago. 

I  might  remark  in  passing  that,  nothwithstanding 
the  horrible  crimes  perpetrated  under  the  influence  of 
the  furor  sexualis  by  the  negro,  particularly  in  the 
South,  I  believe  that  he  compares  quite  favorably  as 
regards  sexual  impulses — taking  all  abnormalities 
into  consideration — with  the  white  race.  The  more  I 
see  of  white  men  in  so-called  refined  society,  the 
more  contempt  I  have  for  quite  a  large  proportion  of 
male  humanity.  This  may  not  be  relevant  to  the 
subject  under  discussion,  but  still  it  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration. 

In  a  recent  conversation  with  an  intelligent  pros- 
titute, who  happened  to  be  under  my  professional 
care,  I  was  informed  that  the  men  who  seek  houses  of 
ill-fame  for  the  purpose  of  having  their  perverted 
sexual  impulses  gratified,  are  chiefly  to  be  found 
among  the  high-toned  clubmen  and  ultra-fashionables. 
When  we  consider  the  faiftorable  circumstances  under 
which  such  men  are  placed  as  regards  inhibitory  in- 
fluences, the  excessively  developed  sexual  propensity 
of  the  negro,  while  horrifying  in  its  criminal  results, 


7 


is  not  more  appalling  than  the  sexual  crimes  of  his 
white  brother. 

In  considering  the  special  causes  which  account 
for  the  frequency  with  which  the  crime  of  rape  is  per- 
petrated by  the  negro  in  this  countr}^,  several  factors 
must  be  taken  into  consideration: 

I.  Hereditary  ijifluences  desce?iding  from  the  unciv- 
ilized ancestors  of  our  negroes.  When  we  take  into 
consideration  the  ancestry  of  the  American  negro,  and 
reflect  upon  the  peculiar  sexual  relations  sustained  by 
that  ancestry,  it  is  by  no  means  surprising  that  ances- 
tral traits  crop  out  occasionally.  Marriage  amoiig 
certain  negro  tribes  is  as  close  a  simulation  of  what  is 
designated  as  rape  in  civilized  communities  as  could 
well  be  imagined.  When  the  Ashantee  warrior 
knocks  down  his  prospective  bride  with  a  club  and 
drags  her  off  into  the  woods,  he  presents  an  excellent 
prototype  illustration  of  the  criminal  sexual  acts  of 
the  negro  in  the  United  States.  You  will  understand, 
my  dear  doctor,  that  this  argument  does  not  apply 
alone  to  the  negro,  for  I  believe  that  sexual  crimes  on 
the  part  of  white  men  are  due  to  a  similar  atavistic 
manifestation  of  savagery.  Many  centuries  of  civilza- 
tion,  with  an  inherent  as  well  as  acquired  capacity  of 
appreciation  of  those  social  obligations  wdiich  consti- 
tute the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,  have 
done  much  for  the  white  race — which  is  essentially  a 
mixed  type,  after  all.  Consider,  on  the  other  hand,  ^ 
how  short  a  time  such  influences  have  been  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  American  negro.  Consider,  also,  if 
you  please,  that  the  evolution  of  the  negro  can  be 
only  said  to  have  fairly  begun  with  his  liberation,  for 
then,  and  then  only,  did  he  become  an  independent 
factor  in  the  body  social. 


8 


2.  A  disproportionate  development  of  the  animai 
propensities  incidental  to  a  relatively  low  degree  of  differ- 
entiation of  type.  A  disproportionate  development  of 
the  animal  propensities  associated  with  a  relatively 
low  differentiation  of  type  is  necessarily  involved  in 
the  preceding  factor  of  heredity.  It  is  a  racial  char- 
acteristic, and  one  which,  for  physical  reasons, 
cross-breeding  will  never  eliminate,  for  the  reason 
that  cross-breeding  in  the  case  of  the  negro  means 
eventually  his  destruction.  The  line  of  demarkation 
between  the  negro  and  the  Caucasian  races  is  too 
strongly  marked  to  result  otherwise.  Cross-breeding, 
which  is  so  beneficial  in  improving  the  stock  in  some 
instances,  fails  altogether  in  the  case  of  miscegenation 
of  the  white  and  negro  races.  The  result  is  a  degen- 
erate type  which  very  frequently  has  all  the  evil 
propensities  of  the  negro //z/i- those  of  the  white  man, 
associated  with  a  physique  of  a  much  more  degenerate 
type  than  either  of  the  ancestors.  When,  however, 
certain  inhibitory  influences  characteristic  of  the 
higher  type  of  the  Vv^hite  man  are  well  developed  in 
the  mulatto,  as  they  are  likely  to  be  from  acquire- 
ment,— by  a  more  intimate  association  with  the  white 
race  as  well  as  from  white  heredity, — the  mulatto  may 
be  much  less  liable  to  sexual  crimes  than  his  negro 
ancestor. 

3.  A  relatively  defective  developmetit  of  what  may 
be  termed  the  centers  of  psychological  ijzhibition.  This 
defect  is  characteristic  of  all  races  of  a  low  grade  of 
civilization  and  a  relatively  low  grade  of  intellectual 
development.  This  with  some  races  might  in  time  be 
corrected  ;  but  it  certainly  has  not  yet  been  corrected 
in  the  case  of  the  negro,  nor  do  I  think  that  it  ever 
can  be  corrected  in  the  negro  as  a  distinctive  racial 
type. 


4-  Physical  degeneracy  involving  chiefly  the  higher 
and  more  receiitly-acqitired  attributes,  with  a  distinct 
tendency  to  reversion  of  type,  which  reversion  is  especially 
manifest  in  the  direction  of  sexual  proclivities.  This 
will  at  once  appeal  to  you  as  a  rational  proposition, 
and  it  is  as  true  as  the  law  of  evolution  itself.  It 
applies  not  only  to  the  negro  race,  but  to  all  races. 
It  applies,  perhaps,  with  especial  force  to  race  under 
consideration. 

When  a  race  of  a  low  type  of  development  is  sub- 
jected to  an  emotionally  intellectual  strain,  inhibitory 
or  restraining  ideas  and  impulses  are  afiected,  and  the 
primitive  instincts  bring  to  the  surface  manifestations 
of  lust  or  bloodthirstiness,  singly  or  combined.  The 
Anabaptists  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  threw  all  * 
restraint  to  the  winds  and  indulged  in  sexual  murders. 
These  Anabaptists  were  chiefly  serfs,  who  had  been 
inflamed  by  fallacious  notions  of  the  clergy  emanating 
from  the  time-honored  text:  ''And  they  (the  disciples 
had  all  things  in  common,  in  love  preferring  one 
another."  That  influences  of  this  character  affect  the 
negro  race  in  consequence  of  the  preaching  of  that 
equality  which  degrades,  is  witnessed  by  the  circum- 
stance that  the  cases  of  insanity  due  to  the 
physiological  commotion  of  puberty  are  thrice  as 
frequent  in  Illinois  as  in  New  York.  In  New  York, 
negroes,  owning  a  certain  amount  of  property  had 
been  allowed  to  vote  for  at  least  forty  years  prior  to 
the  War  between  the  States.  The  negro  had  been 
gradually  evolved  into  a  phase  of  theoretical  equality 
as  regards  his  citizenship,  which  led  him  to  measure 
matters  by  the  highest  standard  possible  to  his  own 
race.  Such  a  condition  of  things  necessarily  imposed 
inhibitions  upon  his  aniniality.  The  negro,  under 
these  circumstances,  could  not  consider  himself  the 


lO 


victim  of  oppressive  laws  formulated  by  the  whites, 
as  his  own  race  for  several  decades  had  functionated 
in  law-making.  Law,  therefore,  with  such  negroes, 
was  to  be  respected  rather  than  condemned.  The 
reverse  was  true  in  Illinois,  in  which  State  te  negro 
passed  with  one  bound,  from  a  condition  of  serfdom, 
in  which  there  was  no  stimulus  to  independent 
thought,  to  an  insolent  assumption  of  superiority. 
The  old  adage  that  ''if  you  put  a  beggar  on  horseback 
he  rides  to  the  devil"  would  apply  very  accurately  to 
the  negroes  thus  suddenly  thrown  upon  their  own 
responsibility. 

The  influences  v/hich  I  have  enumerated  are  even 
greater  in  our  Southern  States,  in  which  the  delusion 
.  of  forty  acres  and  a  mule"  very  soon  destroyed  the 
cumpulsory  thrift  characteristic  of  the  negro  in 
slaver}^  Remember,  my  dear  sir,  that  slavery  merely 
bottled  up  the  primitive  instincts.  All  there  was  of 
thrift  and  decency  in  his  character  was  impressed 
upon  him  in  a  more  or  less  arbitrary  manner  by  his 
owners.  It  was  not  the  product  of  that  evolution 
which  has  characterized  the  negroes  of  New  York 
State,  for  example,  who  have  been  more  or  less 
segregated,  and  in  a  general  way  have  been  exposed 
to  an  environment  favorable  to  their  evolution.  The 
influences  of  carpet-bag  government,  as  depicted  in 
Pike's  "Prostrate  State,"  were  a  very  powerful  factor 
in  destroying  negro  respect  for  law  and  order  in  the 
South.  I  cannot  lay  as  much  stress  as  I  would  like 
to  do  upon  this  point  for  lack  of  time ;  but  the  in- 
doctrination of  the  fallacious  and  pernicious  teaching 
of  the  carpet  bagger  (which  gave  the  degraded  negro 
an  exaggerated  estimate  of  his  own  personal  import- 
ance as  based  upon  the  market  value  of  his  vote,  and 
also  imparted  to  him  the  idea  that  behind  him,  as  he 


went  to  the  polls,  stood  a  phantom  army  of  Re- 
publican soldiers  with  ba37onets  fixed)  has  done  much 
to  increase  the  insolence  and  criminal  impulses  of  the 
negro  in  the  South. 

J".  The  rei?ioval  of  certain  inhibitions  placed  upon 
the  negro  by  the  conditions  which  slavery  imposed  tip07i 
him ;  these  were  removed  by  his  liberation.  This  I 
consider  to  be  by  far  the  most  important  cause  of 
the  sexual  crimes  among  the  negroes  of  the  South 
at  the  present  day.  Remember,  please,  that  the 
negroes  were  simply  goods  and  chattels  ;  indepen- 
dence of  thought  and  action  was  with  them  more 
theoretical  than  practical,  and  certainly  had  very  little 
bearing — in  whatever  degree  it  may  have  existed — 
upon  their  relations  with  the  white  race,  They  were 
accustomed  to  obey  the  dictates  of  their  owners, 
whatever  those  dictates  ma}''  have  been.  Their  envir- 
onment was  narrow  ;  their  conditions  for  develop- 
ment from  the  standpoint  of  an  appreciation  of  their 
relations  to  the  bod}^  social  were  peculiar;  their 
thinking  was  largely  done  for  them  by  others.  In- 
deed, the  necessity  for  independent  thought  and 
action  did  not  exist  as  you  and  I  understand  it  to 
exist  among  the  white  race.  Attachment  to  the  fam- 
ilies of  their  masters,  a  general  sense  of  obligation 
to  the  latter  for  their  own  sustenance  prevailed.  Pri- 
vation and  want—  those  frequent  causes  of  degeneracy 
—  were  unknown  among  them.  Personal  respons- 
ibility of  a  physical  character  for  crimes  and  misdeeds 
was  a  prominent  factor  of  their  daily  lives.  Corporeal 
punishment  for  misdeeds  was  more  awesome  to  them 
at  that  time  than  the  fear  of  the  bullet  or  rope  to- 
day. Some  of  the  inhibitory  influences  of  plantation 
life  were  due  to  colonization  ;  that  is  to  say,  mass  in- 
fluence was  felt.    The  desirability  of  good  behavior — 


12 


indeed,  the  absolute  necessity  for  it — was  a  dominant 
influence  pervading  each  little  negro  community. 

Again,  as  far  as  sexual  impulses  were  concerned, 
the  negro  on  the  plantation  had  more  facility  for 
matrimonial  alliances — notwithstanding  the  possibil- 
ity for  separation  by  the  sale  of  one  or  the  other  of 
contracting  parties — than  the  average  negro  at  the 
present  day, 

I  will  not  dwell  exhaustively  upon  the  evil  influ- 
ence of  certain  individuals  among  the  whites  in  the 
South  who  were  not  inclined  to  respect  even  the 
sexual  rights  of  their  goods  and  chattels  ;  but  I  will 
take  the  liberty  of  stating,  in  passing,  that  in  some 
cases  in  which  the  negro  has  exhibited  an  inappre- 
ciation  of  his  proper  status  from  a  sexual  standpoint^ 
he  may  have  had  rather  a  bad  example  set  him  by  his 
white  brethren.  I  do  not  think  that  this  particular 
point  is  by  any  means  as  important  as  certain  North- 
ern blatherskites  have  endeavored  to  make  us  believe; 
still  I  cannot  help  recalling  a  remark  which  a  rather 
fast  young  man  from  the  South  once  made  to  me, 
which  was  to  the  effect  that  a  young  man  who  forni- 
cated was  not  apt  to  injure  his  social  standing  even 
though  his  indiscretions  were  known,  provided  he 
confined  his  indulgence  to  prostitutes  and  negroes.  A 
single  instance  of  this  kind  may  do  an  incalculable 
amount  of  damage  to  the  Southern-Caucasian  side  of 
the  negro  question. 

In  concluding  this  etiological  division,  I  will  state 
that  it  should  be  by  no  means  surprising  that  the 
negro,  when  thrown  upon  his  own  responsibility,  with 
a  complete  removal  of  all  the  inhibitory  influences  of 
his  previous  bondage,  should  be  unable  to  adapt  him- 
self to  his  new  environment.  This  is  by  no  means 
apologetic  for  the  criminal  acts  of  the  negro,  but  is 


13 


simply  an  argument  worthy  of  the  consideration  of 
those  sentimental  idiots  who  believe  that  the  negro 
question  is  one  entirely  of  skin  and  political  com- 
plexion. Such  sentimentalists  will  one  day  awaken 
to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  negro  question  is 
one  of  the  most  serious  with  which  we  are  confronted 
at  the  present  time,  and  one  which  may  be  settled  by 
the  physical  degeneracy  and  death  of  the  negro  race, 
but  which  can  only  be  settled  in  that  way.  It  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  settled  by  political  manipulations  of 
any  kind,  or  by  sentimental  arguments. 

6.  An  inherent  inadaptabiliiy  to  his  environment  both 
from  a  moral  and  a  legal  standpoint,  the  result  of  this  iii- 
adaptability  being  an  imperfect  or  perverted  conception  of 
his  relatiojis  to  his  e7iviron7ne7it  — /.  e. ,  to  the  body  social. 
This  inherent  inadaptability  to  environment,  while 
applicable  to  the  negro  race  in  its  savage  condition, 
is  by  no  means  so  potent  in  its  influence  as  in  civil- 
ized communities.  In  his  primitive  condition,  the 
social  environment  of  the  negro  consists  of  a  very 
simple  system,  adaptation  to  w^hich  is  a  comparatively 
easy  matter.  Placed  in  the  midst  of  refined  civiliza- 
tion, adaptation  to  environment  becomes  at  once  a 
matter  of  great  difficult}^ 

We  must  consider  also  the  fact  that  the  first  real 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Southern  negro  to  adapt 
himself  to  his  new  surroundings  in  this  country  began 
with  the  close  of  our  Civil  War.  Prior  to  that  time, 
as  I  have  already  outlines,  the  negro  could  hardly  be 
said  to  be  an  independent  factor,  nor  did  he  have  an 
opportunity  of  demonstrating  whether  or  not  he  was 
capable  of  adapting  himself  to  his  surroundings,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  he  was  under  the  domination 
of  guiding,  intelligent  individuals  of  a  superior,  more 
civilized  and  more  refined  race.     Consider  also  the 


fact  that  the  South  has  only  recently  fairly  emerged 
from  the  unsettled  condition  which  the  disturbed  so- 
cial, financial  and  political  relations  incident  to  our 
most  terrible  war  imposed  upon  it.  Indeed  the  mag- 
nificent possibilities  of  the  new  South  are  even  yet 
unappreciated  by  other  sections  of  our  common 
country.  Even  the  Southern  people  themselves,  I 
firmly  believe,  have  not  appreciated  as  they  should 
the  great  resources  of  what  I  personally  consider  the 
grandest  portion  of  the  United  States.  With  politi- 
cal turmoil,  commercial  confusion,  social  disintegra- 
tion surrounding  them,  is  it  a  great  wonder  that  the 
negro,  suddenly  thrown  upon  his  own  resources, 
should  develop  highly  criminal  tendencies  ?  Loyalty 
to  the  master,  respect  for  the  mistress,  and  affection 
for  the  children  of  those  who  once  cared  for  him, 
melted  away  like  dew  before  the  sun  under  the  fortui- 
tous circumstances  in  which  he  was  suddenly  placed, 
and  with  the  disappearance  of  the  old-time  slave,  in 
whose  mind  many  inhibiting  influences  of  slavery  still 
remained,  and  with  the  incoming  of  a  new  and  more 
degenerate  generation  of  his  descendants,  it  is  little 
wonder  that  criminality  on  the  part  of  the  negro 
should  have  increased  in  the  South.  Taking  into 
consideration  his  disproportionate  sexual  develop- 
ment and  propensities,  it  is  by  no  means  surprising 
that  with  the  removal  of  inhibitions  sexual  crimes 
should  result. 

Inadaptability  to  environment  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  the  negro  race.  We  have  found  that  some 
other  alien  races  imported  into  this  country  have 
been  social,  political,  moral,  and  commercial  misfits. 
The  Chinaman  will  never  make  a  good  citizen.  For- 
tunately, however,  his  natural  instincts  do  not  partake 
so  much  of  the  animal  type  as  is  the  case  with  the 


15 


negro,  for  the  Chinaman  of  to-day  is  the  product  of  a 
comparatively  high  grade  of  civihzation,  or  semi- 
civilization,  which  has  prevailed  for  many  centuries, 
and  which  has  developed  certain  inhibitions  upon  the 
purely  animal  propensities.  The  artistic  talent  of 
the  Chinese  is  in  itself  an  evidence  in  favor  of  this 
argument,  for  pari  passu  with  the  development  of  a 
taste  and  faculty  for  artistic  pursuits  there  occurs  a 
development  of  the  higher  inhibitory  faculties.  The 
industry  of  the  Chinaman  in  his  natural  condition — 
to  say  nothing  of  that  which  is  exemplified  in  his  re- 
lations to  our  community  when  he  settles  among  us — 
is  another  factor  to  be  taken  into  consideration. 

The  natural  shiftlessness  of  the  negro,  when  left 
to  himself,  is  simply  a  reversion  to  the  primitive  type, 
which  is  well  illustrated  by  the  Zulu,  who  is  content 
with  a  breech  clout,  a  plentiful  supply  of  grease  for 
his  glossy  hide,  and  plenty  of  wives  to  minister  to  his 
various  appetites.  Let  me  again  emphasize  the  fact, 
that  it  has  been  but  a  short  span  between  the  Zulu 
and  the  negro  as  we  see  him  to-day.  How  much  of 
inhibitory  faculties  could  we  expect  to  develop  in  a 
race,  primarily  so  barbarous,  within  so  short  a  time? 

7.  An  incapacity  of  appreciation  of  the  dire  results 
to  himself  of  sexual  crimes  :  This  incapacity  is  quite 
characteristic  of  individuals  of  a  low  type  of  organ- 
ization, and  such  little  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
as  a  large  proportion  of  the  negro  race  possesses  is 
readily  inhibited  by  excitement  of  the  lower  brain 
centers,  such  as  m.ay  be  produced  by  anger,  a/lcohol, 
or  the  furor  sexualis.'  It  has  been  my  experience  that 
individuals  of  refined  nervous  organization  and  sensi- 
bilities are  more  likely  to  hold  a  wholesome  respect 
for  capital  punishment  than  those  of  a  lower  type.  A 
keener  appreciation  of  their  present  existence  and  a 


i6 


greater  dread  of  the  possibilities  after  death  certainly 
actuate  such  persons.  The  higher  faculties  of  the 
brain,  those  of  reason  and  ideation,  are  relatively 
more  strongly  developed  than  in  the  lower  types  of 
humanity,  and  there  exists  a  proportionate  lack  of  de- 
velopment of  the  lower  or  more  strictly  animal  cen- 
ters. When,  therefore,  a  struggle  for  the  mastery 
arises  between  the  reasoning  faculties  and  animal  im- 
pulses, the  balance  is  very  likely  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
former,  particularly  when  the  keen  sense  of  personal 
responsibility  comes  into  play. 

You  will  pardon  me,  I  am  sure,  when  I  say  that 
the  seeds  of  religion  sown  upon  the  soil  of  ignorance 
and  superstition  characteristic  of  the  negro  have  had 
much  to  do  Vv^ith  the  development  of  criminality  in  the 
negro  race.  I  sometimes  wonder  whether  no  religion 
at  all  would  not  be  better  than  any  religion  for  a  large 
proportion  of  individuals  among  the  negroes.  It  is 
said  that  most  executed  criminals  go  from  the  scaffold 
straight  to  heaven.  I  doubt  whether  there  ever  was 
a  negro  who  did  not  believe  that  he  was  heavenward 
bound  as  he  stood  upon  the  scaffold  or  confronted  the 
righteous  indignation  of  the  citizens  of  the  community 
in  which  he  had  committed  an  outrage.  We  have 
not  so  very  far  to  look  backwards  from  the  pious  and 
superstitious  negro  upon  the  scaffold,  who  believes 
that  he  is  on  the  short-cut  to  Heaven,  to  the  Zulu, 
who  in  battle  courts  death  because  the  heathen  reli- 
gion of  his  fathers  has  taught  him  to  believe  that  an 
eternity  of  happiness  lies  just  beyond  his  enemy's 
spear  or  bullet. 

The  same  superstition  animates  the  Musselman, 
who,  as  the  charging  hosts  of  the  "accursed  Frank" 
pass  over  his  wounded  body,  hamstrings  the  horses 
or  spears  the  riders,  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  bring 


17 

death  upon  himself  that  he  may  go  straight  to  the 
arms  of  Mohammed  in  the  Paradise  of  the  faithful. 

When  all  inhibitions  of  a  high  order  have  been  re- 
moved by  sexual  excitement,  I  fail  to  see  any  differ- 
ence from  a  physical  standpoint  between  the  sexual 
furor  of  the  negro  and  that  vv^hich  prevails  among  the 
lower  animals  in  certain  instances  and  at  certain 
periods.  This  is  not  confined  to  the  negro,  but  is 
true,  although  less  frequently,  in  certain  instances  of 
sexual  criminals  among  the  white  race.  Kiernan,  in 
the  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Meiital  Diseases  in  1885, 
called  attention  to  a  fact  which  is  very  pertinent  to 
our  present  inquiry — namely,  that  the  furor  sexualis 
in  the  negro  resembles  similar  sexual  attacks  in  the 
bull  and  elephant,  and  the  running  amuck  of  the 
Malay  race.  This  furor  sexualis  has  been  especially 
frequent  among  the  negroes  in  States  cursed  by 
carpet-bag  statesmanship,  in  which  frequent  changes 
in  the  social  and  commercial  status  of  the  negro  race 
have  occurred. 

The  reversion  of  type  in  the  negro  is  both  physical 
and  intellectual,  and  must  be  taken  into  serious  con- 
sideration, as  bearing  directly  upon  the  question:  Is 
it  practicable  to  remedy  the  resulting  evils  by  either 
legal  or  illegal  methods  of  punishment? 

An  interesting  story  is  told  by  the  cannibalistic 
sexual  rites  of  Hayti  and  Liberia  and  the  enormous 
increase  in  Southern  Voodoo  Phallic  worship  since 
the  War.  When  sexuality  finds  vent  in  phallic  wor- 
ship it  is  relatively  harmless  as  regards  the  individual. 
When  it  cannot  be  vented  in  this  manner  it  results  in 
sexual  crime. 

y  The  greater  frequency  of  rape  by  negroes  in  the 
South  as  compared  with  the  North  is,  I  think,  indis- 
putable   and    requires    greater    consideration.  The 


i8 

climate  of  the  South  is  much  more  favorable  to  the 
perpetuation  of  the  primitive  impulses  of  the  negro 
race  than  is  that  of  the  North.  A  reversion  of  type — 
both  physical  and  intellectual — is  more  likely,  to  occur 
under  the  influence  of  that  climate  which  most  nearly 
approximates  that  in  which  the  negro  race  was  orig- 
inally bred.  The  influence  of  climate  upon  the  sexual 
function  has  a  powerful  bearing  not  only  upon  the 
negro  race,  but  upon  the  Caucasian.  The  relatively 
unsettled  condition  of  the  South  after  the  War  as 
compared  with  the  North — to  which  allusion  has 
already  been  made — has  had  much  to  do  with  the 
comparatively  greater  frequency  of  sexual  crimes. 

Again,  the  Northern  negro  has  necessarily  been 
surrounded  by  more  inhibitory  influences  than  the 
negro  of  the  South.  The  lower  class  of  whites  with 
whom  he  has  most  frequently  been  brought  in 
contact  have  been  better  situated  as  regards  oppor- 
tunities for  honest  industry.  They  have  been  by 
virtue  of  the  climate  more  energetic,  and  this  neces- 
sarily must  have  had  a  certain  degres  of  influence 
upon  the  negro.  The  North  has  been  more  pros- 
perous, and  consequently  the  opportunities  for  obtain- 
ing a  comfortable  subsistence  have  been  better  for  the 
negro  than  in  the  South.  The  negro  of  the  North 
has  not  been  so  much  subjected  to  the  mass  in- 
fluence— /.  e.,  he  has  been  more  individualistic  than 
in  the  South,  where  large  numbers  of  negroes  are 
found  together.  In  order  that  civilization  should 
have  a  fair  chance  to  influence  the  negro,  he  must 
have  more  opportunities  for  segregation  than  in  the 
South. 

The  enormous  increase  of  the  negro  since  the 
War  has  had  much  to  do  with  his  physical  and  intel- 
lectual degeneracy  and  therefore  with  his  criminal 


i9 

p-opensities.  As  man  descends  in  the  scale  of  differ- 
entiation, the  number  of  offspring  at  a  birth  approx- 
imates the  multiple  pregnancies  of  the  lower  strata  of 
animal  life.  Morel,  De  Monteyel,  Hagen,  and  one 
of  our  most  eminent  American  Vv^riters — Kiernan — 
have  conclusively  shown  that  multiple  pregnancies 
are  most  frequent  among  the  degenerate  types  of 
humanity.  The  offspring  in  such  multiple  pregnan- 
cies are  defective  from  an  obvious  double  cause  ; 
upon  them  all  degrading  influences  act  with  greater 
power. 

Your  remarks,  my  dear  doctor,  anent  the  quality 
and  quantity  of  food  eaten  by  the  Southern  negro 
since  the  War,  as  compared  with  that  which  he  ob- 
tained before  the  great  struggle,  have,  I  think,  much 
weight ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  they  have  so  import- 
ant a  bearing  upon  the  question  which  you  have  done 
me  the  honor  to  submit  to  me  as  the  lack  of  system- 
atic occupation  and  the  forced  assumption  of  respons- 
ibility for  which  he  was,  by  nature  and  training, 
unfit — to  say  nothing  of  the  acquirement  of  vices  and 
profligate  indulgence  for  which  he  had  relatively 
few  opportunities  while  he  was  in  bondage,  and  for 
which  he  was  directly  responsible  to  those  whose 
interest  it  was  to  keep  him  in  the  best  possible  con- 
dition morally  and  physically. 

I  can  only  compliment  you,  sir,  upon  the  compre- 
hensiveness with  which,  in  a  general  way,  3^ou  have, 
in  your  letter,  covered  the  causes  of  physical  degen- 
eracy and  the  present  extraordinary  prevalence  of 
diseases  of  nutrition  among  the  negro  race,  partic- 
ularly as  seen  in  the  South. 

Although  I  have  discussed  most  of  the  points 
which  I  believe  should  be  incorporated  in  my  reply 
to  your  communication,  I  feel  that  I  cannot  leave  the 


20 


subject  without  touching  upon  certain  points  in  which 
I  fear  many  of  my  Southern  friends  will  not  agree 
with  me.  l^hese  points  involve  a  consideration  of  a 
remedy  for  the  alarming  prevalence  of  sexual  crimes 
among  the  negroes  of  the  South.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  state  that  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion from  the  standpoint  of  political  buncombe, 
maudlin  sentimentality,  and  intentional  bias  of  certain 
blatherskite  newspapers  in  the  North.  I  shall  be  as 
utilitarian  as  possible  ;  whether  I  am  philosophical 
or  not,  must  remain  for  you  to  judge. 

You  speak  of  the  ''unwritten  law  of  every  com^- 
munity  in  the  South,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal." 
Now,  my  dear  doctor,  what  has  been  accomplished  by 
this  law?  In  answer  to  this  question,  I  have  only  to 
quote  your  assertion:  "  Sexual  crimes  on  the  part  of 
the  negro  in  the  South  are  becoming  more  and  more 
frequent."  This  is  all,  I  believe,  that  it  is  necessary 
for  me  to  say  with  regard  to  the  general  utility  of  the 
practical  application  of  your  ''unwritten  law."  I  do 
not  say  that  lynch  law  is  always  ineffective,  for  I 
spent  the  earlier  years  of  my  life  in  a  community  in 
which  it  was  most  decidedly  so.  One  of  my  earliest 
recollections  was  that  of  the  exploits  of  vigilance  com- 
mittees and  those  decidedly  informal  trials  held  by 
Judge  Lynch  in  the  early  days  of  the  history  of  Cali- 
fornia— my  native  State.  The  conditions,  however, 
which  prevailed  at  that  time  were  decidedly  different 
from  those  which  prevail  in  the  South.  Judge  Lynch 
has  accomplished  great  good  in  many  isolated  in- 
stances in  this  country.  It  has  only  been  in  isolated 
instances,  however,  and  under  special  and  limited 
Gonditions,  such  as  those  involved  in  temporary  emer- 
gencies due  to  local  lawlessness.  Lynch  law,  how- 
ever, has  seemed  to  have  too  large  a  contract  upon 


21 


its  hands  in  the  Southern  States,  as  far  as  the  acts  of 
lawlessness  at  present  under  consideration  are  con- 
cerned. 

Before  going  further,  perhaps  it  might  be  well  for 
me  to  place  myself  upon  record  as  opposed  to  capital 
punishment,  legal  or  illegal.  From  a  sentimental 
standpoint?  Most  emphatically  no.  From  a  utili- 
tarian standpoint,  I  have  failed  to  see  wherein  capital 
punishment  has,  in  the  aggregate,  repressed  those 
crimes  for  which  it  is  prescribed.  The  census  returns 
show  the  lowest  proportion  of  capital  crimes  in  this 
country  is  in  the  three  States  in  which  capital  punish- 
ment has  been  abolished.  Even  in  the  olden  days  of 
public  and  bloody  executions  capital  crimes  were  none 
the  less  rampant  because  of  those  executions.  On 
the  contrary,  capital  punishment  seemed  to  have  a 
direct  effect  in  increasing  the  savagery  of,  and  lessen- 
ing the  respect  for  human  life  entertained  by,  the 
body  social.  No  matter  how  scientifically  and  legally 
an  execution  may  be  done,  it  is  still  a  sacrifice  of  a 
human  life,  and  as  such  has  a  demoralizing  effect 
upon  the  comfnunity.  If,  then,  this  be  true,  and 
capital  punishment  fails  of  its  object,  wherein  can  it 
be  condoned? 

I  am  not  inclined  to  captiously  criticise,  mind  you, 
the  typical  Southern  method  of  dealing  with  negro 
ravishers — for  I  would  probably  be  as  quick  to  act 
similarly  under  like  circumstances — but  do  you  think 
that  any  reasoning  whatever  could  justify  the  recent 
roasting  of  a  negro  ravishcr  in  one  of  the  Southern 
States?  The  punishment  of  that  negro,  while  well 
deserved  and  horrible  enough  to  satisfy  the  most 
epicurean  taste  from  the  standpoint  of  revenge,  could 
not  possibly  be  any  more  effectual  than  if  his  life  had 


22 


been  taken  in  a  more  humane  manner  by  the  bullet  or 
rope. 

With  the  departure  of  the  vital  spark  from  that 
negro,  all  impression  made  by  the  execution,  as  far  as 
he  was  concerned,  ceased.  To  the  negro  population 
of  the  country,  however,  an  impression  was  conveyed 
to  the  effect  that  a  barbarous  discrimination  against 
one  of  their  race  had  been  exhibited.  The  justice  of 
the  punishment  in  that  case  will  ever  be  obscured  by 
the  barbarity  of  its  execution.  The  impression  made 
upon  the  community  in  which  it  happened  can  be 
imagined. 

I  object  to  any  method  of  punishment  which  is 
followed  by  forgetfulness  on  the  part  of  surviving 
prospective  criminals.  With  them,  current  events 
soon  obliterate  all  recollections  of  the  criminal,  his 
crime,  and  its  punishment. 

To  my  mind,  there  is  only  one  logical  method  of 
dealing  with  capital  crimes  and  criminals  of  the 
habitual  class — namely,  castration.  This  method  of 
punishment  leaves  behind  it  evidences  which  will 
prove  a  wholesome  warning  to  criminals  of  like  pro- 
pensities. It  prevents  the  criminal  from  perpetuating 
his  kind.  The  murderer  is  likely  to  lose  much  of  his 
savageness;  the  violator  loses  not  only  the  desire  but 
the  capacity  for  a  repetition  of  his  crime,  if  the  opera- 
tion be  supplemented  by  penile  mutilation  according 
to  the  Oriental  method.  A  few  emasculated  negroes 
scattered  around  through  the  thickly-settled  negro 
communities  of  the  South  would  really  prove  the 
conservation  of  energy,  as  far  as  the  repression  of 
sexual  crimes  is  concerned.  Executed,  they  would 
be  forgotten;  castrated  and  free,  they  would  be  a  con- 
stant warning  and  ever-present  admonition  to  others 
of  their  race.    Thus,  I  believe  that  castration  would 


23 


be  pecuiiarly  applicable  to  the  class  of  criminals 
under  consideration;  while,  at  the  same  time,  claim- 
ing that  it  is  the  rational  method  of  dealing  with  the 
crime  question  in  many  of  its  phases. 

I  cannot  leave  this  subject  without  allusion  to  your 
remark  that  the  moral  and  physical  degeneration  of 
the  negro  will  eventually  destroy  the  race  upon  this 
continent.  This,  I  think,  is  true;  but  it  is  not,  after 
all,  a  remedy  worthy  of  consideration,  for  the  more 
degraded  a  race  becomes  the  more  frequent  crimes 
against  law  and  order  will  become.  While  perhaps 
it  would  not  be  desirable  to  prevent  the  inevitable  in 
the  case  of  the  negro,  there  might  be  much  of  benefit 
to  ourselves  in  retarding  the  march  of  the  inevitable 
as  long  as  we  can  by  improving  the  physical  condi- 
tion and  intellectual  status  of  the  negro  race.  Manual 
training  and  education  will  do  much  for  the  negroes 
of  the  South  ;  and  if  our  government  in  the  past  had 
paid  more  attention  to  these  factors  in  the  develop, 
ment  of  the  negroes,  who  were  suddenly  thrown  upon 
their  own  responsibility,  and  less  attention  to  the  cul- 
tivation and  harvesting  of  the  negro  vote,  it  would 
have  been  far  better  for  the  South. 

Few,  indeed,  of  the  people  in  the  North,  can  ap- 
preciate the  terrible  burden  which  the  liberation  of 
the  slaves  threw  upon  the  people  of  the  South.  I 
believe  that  slavery  was  wrong  as  firmly  as  I  believe 
anything  ;  but  it  really  was  a  pity  to  throw  the  bur- 
dens of  this  wrong — which  originally  was  legalized, 
encouraged,  and  fostered  by  practically  the  entire 
country — upon  that  section  of  the  country  to  which  it 
was  finally  confined.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  negro 
was  turned  loose  to  seek  his  own  salvation;  and  aside 
from  the  influence  of  carpet-bag  politics  and  a  decid- 
edly warm  interest  in  his  vote,  practically  nothing 


24 


was  done  to  by  the  government  to  ameliorate  his  con- 
dition or  to  improve  his  intellectual  and  physical 
status.  The  burden  imposed  upon  the  South  was  still 
greater  on  account  of  the  impoverished  and  demoral- 
ized condition  of  the  white  people  in  that  section,  re- 
sulting from  the  great  struggle  between  the  States. 
What  has  been  done  since  the  War,  aside  from  the 
political  interest  in  the  negro  exhibited  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, has  been  of  a  sporadic  character,  and  due 
to  individual  philanthropy  on  the  one  hand,  or  an 
appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  Southerner  of  the 
necessity  for  self-defense  by  the  improvement  of  the 
negro,  on  the  other. 

With  respect  to  the  amalgamation  of  the  negro 
and  white  races  in  this  country,  we  are  confronted 
with  a  very  trying  problem.  The  progeny  of  cross- 
breeding often  has  all  the  vices  of  both  ancestors  and 
the  virtues  of  neither.  He  is  also  physically  degen- 
erate. I  doubt  that  he  has,  as  a  rule,  as  well-marked 
impulses  of  a  purely  animal  nature  as  characterizes 
the  negro  element  in  his  ancestry.  One  great  diffi- 
culty in  the  case  of  cross-breeding  of  white  and  negro 
is  the  everlasting  tendency  to  a  reversion  of  type, 
which  atavism  results  quite  uniformly  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  negro  type. 

On  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  with  proper 
educational  and  physical  training  of  the  individuals 
of  mixed  blood,  extensive  cross-breeding  may  eventu- 
ally be  of  value  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  which 
you  have  submitted  to  me.  The  prejudice  and  legal 
restrictions  which  attempts  at  miscegenation  have 
met  with  in  the  South,  have  perhaps,  after  all,  not 
been  conducive  to  the  final  improvement  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  races.  It  would  hardly  be 
becoming  in  me  to  advocate  miscegenation.   I  simply 


25 

desire  to  raise  the  question  whether  or  not,  from  a 
utihtarian  standpoint,  its  general  application  would 
eventually  solve  the  problem  of  "What  shall  we  do 
with  the  negro  ?  "  Permit  me  to  say  that  none  of  the 
arguments  that  I  have  ever  been  able  to  formulate, 
and  none  of  the  opinions  that  I  have  ever  read,  have 
enabled  me  to  see  in  the  negro  question  anything  but 
a  most  perplexing,  harrassing  and  important  problem, 
of  which  the  question  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to 
present  tome  for  consideration  is  by  no  means,  the 
least  important.  It  may  be  selfish  in  me,  but  I  am 
rather  thankful  that  the  responsibility  of  solving  the 
problem  in  a  radical  manner — and  such  radical  solu- 
tion must  come  sooner  or  later — will  necessarily  de- 
volve upon  another  generation  than  my  own. 

A  point  w^ell  worth  of  attention,  in  seeking  to 
remedy  the  evils  which  so  vitally  interest  the  Southern- 
er, is  this:  Much  may  be  done  w^ith  the  negro  by  a 
proper  example  on  the  part  of  the  white  race,  which 
must  of  necessity  be  his  model,  socially,  politically 
and  morally.  Ignorance  of  sexual  physiology  has  led 
the  average  white  boy,  at  the  age  of  puberity,  to  be- 
lieve, that  fornication  is  a  necessit}^ — or,  at  least,  a 
luxury  at  which  the  whole  world  winks.  You  know 
only  too  well  the  train  of  misery  following  the  indoc- 
trination of  such  ideas.  This  fallacious  idea  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  of  prostitution  and  sexual  crime. 
Parents  abhor  its  discussion;  physicians  abhor  it  as  a 
bete  noir.  Sentimentality  and  morals  aside,  the  most 
materialistic  of  us  must  acknowledge  that  sexual 
purity  is  wholesome  in  its  effects.  The  remedy  for 
the  evils  of  youth  and  early  manhood  is,  never  to  be- 
gin indulgences  that  create  physical  and  injurious 
necessities. 


26 


In  conclusion,  my  dear  Doctor,  permit  me  to  state 
that  I  am  fully  aware  that  I  h^ve  not  adequately  dis- 
cussed the  question  which  you  have  submitted  to  me. 
I  fear,  moreover,  that  my  reply  may  be  unsatisfactory 
to  you;  but  I  assure  you  that  I  am  ready  to  receive 
more  light  upon  the  subject,  and  am  decidedly  open 
to  conviction. 

Thanking  you  for  your  kind  consideration  and  the 
compliment  which  you  have  paid  me,  I  have  the 
honor  to  remain. 

Very  fraternally  and  faithfully  yours, 


Frank  Lydston. 


Substitution  caution 
A  Crying  Shame. 

Since  establishing  the  fact  that 

ELIXIR  THREE  CHLORIDES,  "  R.  &  H." 

is  an  exceedingly  valuable  alterative  and  tonic.  It 
has  led  to  unscrupulous  or  silent  substitution;  the 
physicians  can  and  should  protect  the  laity  by 
specifying  R.  &  H.,  when  Renz  &  Henry's  Elixir 
Three  Chlorides  is  wanted,  to  insure  prompt,  pro- 
gressive and  certain  results,  pleasant  taste,  and  avoid 
bad  features  —  since  substitutes  do  not  meet  -  our 
claims.     Never  sold  i7i  buUz. 

The  Profession  should  act  promptly. 

To  GUI'  thinking  the  subject  is  serious  enough  to  demand  prompt  action  by 
the  profession.  Let  a  careful  and  systematic  course  of  Investigation  be 
inaugurated  iPhd  let  the  names  of  all  druggist?  who  substitute  be  printed 
and  given  to  the  public.  And  let  us  as  guardians  of  the  health  of  the 
people  warn  all  persons  against  trading  with  such  men.  We  would  like 
to  see  a  bill  pass  Congress  punishing  substitution  of  medicine  the  same 
as  counterfeiting  coin. —  "  National  Medical  Review,"  May,  18ti;). 


DR.  G.  FRANK  LYDSTON 


DESIRES  TO  ANNOUNCE  THAT  HE  HAS  OPENED  A 


PRIVATE 
SURGICAL  HOSPITAL 


Address  834  Opera  House  Block, 

CHICAGO. 


3dm 


LOUISVILLE,  KY. 


